Fish tank brace

[H9flx]

I’ve bought this fish tank without the stand as I’m building into a wall feature, but we removed a strip on the top to get some rocks in, then yesterday found out it’s a brace and if we will with water it could collapse should I buy all the rock we want now and place in it and re-silicone the strip back in place or will it be ok?? Novice here

 

[mort]

Hi, that looks a pretty high tank. Can you let us know the dimensions and how thick the glass is. You can calculate a glass safety factor from those and it helps decide whether the glass is thick enough to not need bracing. From an initial look of the picture though it does look like it would benefit from some support.

 

[H9flx]

But I didn’t get the stand

 

[mort]

It's the glass thickness that is the important thing really but if a reputable shop like the abyss is selling the tank (didn't know if it was a custom tank) then if it had braces they would be there for a reason. More commercial tanks have bracing because it means they can get away with thinner glass which saves a lot of money when you are making a lot. I would guess yours is 8mm and to go braceless you would want 10mm at least (doesn't sound like a big difference but it is).

 

[H9flx]

Thankyou, I’ll double check the glass thickness